Jaipur: Not only the ownership of Dholpur Palace in Jaipur is in question but there are 18 other royal families which are at loggerheads with Rajasthan government over the ownership of their palaces.
The Dholpur Palace in Jaipur is in the spotlight due to the row over links between Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and former Indian Premier League chief Lalit Modi. The Congress alleged that Raja along with her son Dushyant Singh conspired with Lalit Modi to take over its ownership.
But Rajasthan is replete with such disputed palaces and old properties. And the answer to an RTI query has now revealed that the government does not have any records of most of these properties.
Activist PN Mendola sayd, "It was the responsibility of the consecutive governments to secure the state property. By failing to do so they have betrayed the people of the state. This is no minor crime, it's a scam of thousands of crores on which immediate cognizance should be taken."
The properties were meant to be divided based on an agreement with the Centre in 1949 but it has not been done in the last 65 years. The agreement said that after the princely states were merged, their private properties and public properties were to be listed separately. Not only was it not done, but records are now missing.
Another activist Ambalal Nayak said, "It is very sad that the state government is not taking any interest in its own property. And I am fighting a constant fight to get justice for the state government."
The minutes of a crucial govt meeting in 1982 in which a local official ordered heritage properties in Alwar and Jaipur to be taken over - are also missing. Although the government is aware of the missing documents, it is clueless about its future course of action.
Rajasthan Minster Rajendra Rathore said, "Twenty princely states came together to form Rajasthan but no on can say with certainty that the state government has the records of these properties in accordance with the covenant. For many of these properties the courts have given orders so the properties are not listed."
Making matters worse is the fact that several erstwhile royals are politically prominent across party lines in Rajasthan.
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